The whistleblower complaint imploded big time yesterday when part of it was specifically called out as false by a senior government official, according to Christina Ruffini, the State Department and Foreign Affairs Reporter for CBS News.
Scoop: Senior Govt Official tells @CBSNews Counselor to the State Department Ulrich Brechbuhl was NOT on the @POTUS call with #Zelensky, as the whistle blower complaint states.
— Christina Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) September 26, 2019
Another problem in the story also emerged, according to Fox.
[A]ccording to the whistleblower complaint, by mid-May, U.S. diplomat Kurt Volker sought to “contain the damage” from Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s outreach to Ukraine.
But a July 19 text message conversation from Volker to Giuliani, provided to Fox News on Thursday, showed that Volker had in fact encouraged Giuliani to reach out to Ukraine — even sending Giuliani a message reading, “connecting you here with Andrey Yermak, who is very close to President Zelensky.”
Additionally, the complaint said Trump “suggested that Mr. Zelensky might want to keep” his current prosecutor general, a claim not supported by the transcript.
There were of course other things wrong with the claim to begin with, such as the claim that there was a quid pro quo offered when there was none, as the transcript shows. Ukraine has also made it clear that they did not in any way feel pressured in the phone call, despite the whistleblower saying differently. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was a “normal call” and “no one pushed me.”
But now there’s even more.
The whistleblower complained that there was nothing at all sensitive in the call. So that there was no justification for thereafter secure storage system in the NSC. The argument was that Trump just didn’t want people to hear the conversation.
As it turns out, that’s also wrong, as Undercover Huber notes in a great Twitter thread.
At least one major part of the “whistleblower” memo is false AND this also proves one of their White House moles was misinformed or lying too
“The call [with Ukraine] did not contain anything remotely sensitive from a national security perspective”
THREAD
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) September 26, 2019
A “White House official” is quoted by the whistleblower (WB) as objecting to the storage of the MEMCON transcript of @realDonaldTrump call with Zelenskyy in a secure storage system in the NSC. This was wrong (a cover up) because it contained “nothing remotely sensitive”. Nothing! pic.twitter.com/z38G4xkwkq
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) September 26, 2019
That’s categorically, 100% false. The President’s call with Zelenskyy contained references to both POTUS’s and the Ukrainian President’s opinions on multiple European countries and leaders, especially Germany/France and Merkel/Macron, as well as sanctions policy towards Russia pic.twitter.com/p57jssTRa3
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) September 26, 2019
That’s why when originally classified the transcript was set at the SECRET, Original Classification Authority (ORCON), No Foreign Distribution (NOFORN) level pic.twitter.com/w4QVsQ5owe
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) September 26, 2019
That classification was set because the diplomatic view of the United States (and POTUS) towards other countries and leaders can “cause serious damage to national security” if disclosed in an unauthorized way. In this case it could also damage the national security of Ukraine too pic.twitter.com/hnP9hUKDu4
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) September 26, 2019
To prove the point, @Comey was referred to the IG and DOJ for potential prosecution because just *one* of his memos contained a *tiny* amount of similar information: POTUS’s views on the relative importance of two countries (one of which was Russia) and when to return their calls pic.twitter.com/flYTWYc4K7
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) September 26, 2019
Comey’s content was far milder & only 6 words, but even it was classified at the CONFIDENTIAL level, I.e would cause “damage to national security”
Trump’s transcript was SECRET because it had far more info AND far stronger views about a *key US foreign policy*: Russia sanctions
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) September 26, 2019
The fact Trump has since been forced into disclosing the transcript is irrelevant
At the time, a SECRET classification was clearly warranted and the call DID contain sensitive national security information
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) September 26, 2019
The administration also had another very legitimate reason for wanting to secure the information. Earlier in the administration, there were a lot of leaks they were trying to stop. According to ABC, more things were thus put in secure storage than previously.
So either someone in the chain of unreliable hearsay on the whistleblower memo was mistaken or someone along the way wasn’t telling the truth.
Again.
So when are Democrats going to throw in the towel on this?
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